As an architect with a background in structural engineering, the inventor became frustrated with the current building methods and their inefficiencies. In typical conventional wood frame construction, load bearing stick-framed walls are crafted on site by skilled craftsmen and provide the structural skeleton of each building. In certain markets, there is an increased demand for these skilled carpenters, which is driving up costs of construction and stalling out projects. Moving to a non-load bearing wall design with post and beam construction speeds up the construction time and allows for increased use of less skilled labor.
Typical construction methods often use “hinged” connections as these connections are the easiest and cheapest connection to effectuate during construction. However, it is well recognized in the art that the creation of “fixed-end” moment frames are a more material efficient building component and allows for smaller members, but provides similar or improved performance. Thus, there is also a need in the wood framing construction industry to create an economical beam to column connection which provides performance of a fixed-end or “moment frame” construction.
The present invention is a building frame connector that addresses these shortcomings in the art and provides a building method of improved efficiency from both the cost of labor and the cost of materials.